BACKGROUND : Chitosan, derived from chitin, has a poor solubility which limits its application greatly. For improving its dissolubility, according to the feature that intramolecular hydroxy and amino group in chitosan are easy to be chemically modified, and functional groups are introduced to improve its solubility and functionality to widen the range of its application, which has become one of the new trend of development for investigating the application of chitosan. OBJECTIVE: To sum up the research advancements in the application and modification of chitosan in carboxylation,acylation, alkylation, etherification, etc.RETRTEVE STRATEGY: The relevant articles published in English between 1998 and 2007 were searched for in Pubmed database with the key words of "chitosan, modification", and the relevant articles published between 1998 and 2007 were searched for in Elsevier Science database with the key words "chitosan, modification" and search "derivate" within search results in English. Articles closely related to the structural modification and application of chitosan were involved, and repetitive and old studies were excluded.LTTERATURE EVALUATION: Totally 154 articles were selected, and 30 of them are accorded with the inclusive criteria,including 5 are reviews, and the others are clinical or experimental studies.DATA SYNTHESTS: The intramolecular hydroxy and amino groups in chitosan are mostly modified because they are easy to be chemically modified. Recently, reports lay particular emphasis on the modification in carboxylation, acylation,alkylation, etherification, etc. Functional groups are introduced to improve its solubility and functionality to widen the range of its application.CONCLUSTON: The water-solubility of chitosan can be improved through structural modification and introducing multifunctional group, which can also bring about much more special efficacies.

Recent findings indicate that metastasis-associated gene in colon cancer 1 ( MACC1 ) has an abnormal high expression in most malignant tumors.As a key regulator of HGF-MET signal pathway,MACC1 could obviously up-regulate the expression of MET and promote cancer cell's movement,invasion and metastasis.Further studies will shed light on elucidating the mechanisms of metastasis and may provide a new method for targeted therapy.

Objective To evaluate left ventricular regional systolic myocardial function quantitatively before and after coronary artery bypass graft(CABG) in patients with coronary artery disease(CAD) by strain rate imaging(SRI),and determine the effect of CABG.The diagnostic value of two-dimensional echocardiography(2-DE) method and SRI parameter method was compared.Methods The values of systolic strain rate(SRs) at 9 segments supplied by left anteior descending were measured in study group(20 patients with CAD) at 1 d before and 10 d,1 month,3 months and 6 months after CABG.The regional myocardial function befose CABG was analyzed and compared with that of controls,and abnormal segments were found.Then the values of these abnormal segments before and after CABG were compared.Results In control group,SRs displayed a wide and negative peak and was homogeneous in every segments.The SRs peak values decreased,and the homogeneity disappeared in study group.Beginning from 1 month after CABG,the SRs peak values at the graft segments increased in varying degrees,and there was significant difference at basal segments of anterior wall,middle segments of anteroseptal,and middle segments of posteroseptal in the different periods(P

Objective: To explore value of treadmill test Duke score on diagnosis of coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: A total of 200 patients suspected CHD were selected. All patients received biochemical examinations, treadmill exercise test (TET) and coronary angiography (CAG) within two weeks. The results of TET, Duke treadmill score（DTS）and CAG were compared and analyzed. Results: The CAG was regard as gold standard diagnosing CHD. （1）Compared with TET alone, there were significant decrease in specificity (72.3% vs.55.4%, χ2=5.161, P=0.021) in positive DTS alone for diagnosing CHD; there were significant increase in sensitivity(72.6% vs. 87.8%，χ2=7.860, P=0.005), negative predictive value(56% vs.76.9%，χ2=6.128, P=0.013) in combined use of TET and DTS for diagnosing CHD; （2）Compared with positive DTS alone, there were significant increase in sensitivity (76.3% vs. 87.8%，χ2=4.334, P=0.037),negative predictive value(52.9% vs. 76.9%，χ2=7.298, P=0.007) and accuracy (69.5% vs. 80.8%，χ2=5.849, P=0.016)in combined use of TET and DTS. Conclusion: Combined use of treadmill exercise test and Duke score can significantly increase sensitivity, negative predictive value and accuracy diagnosing CHD.

Cerebral ischemia models of rabbits were induced by four-artery obstruction method. The changes of excitatory amino acid (EAA) transmitters,brain-tissue calcium (TCa) and intramitochondria calcium (MCa) of the cerebral cortex were measured and the effects of ketamine were observed. The results revealed that 20 minutes after ischemia,the amoumts of the EAA transmitters (Glu and Asp) in brain tissues were decreased, and decreased further after reperfusion. But after 20 minutes ischemia,the levels of TCa and MCa were elevated and higher than that of ischemia and contral groups significantly after the reperfusion. Ketamine could increase the Glu and Asp contents and decrease the TCa and MCa levels during ischemia and reperfusion.

The ability to make informed health decisions is a complex process. Knowing when to consult a healthcare professional, understanding one's medical condition and learning how to take medicines correctly require that health information can be accessed, processed and applied effectively by the individual. These statements underpin the concept of "health literacy" which may be defined as the degree to which people have the ability to find, understand, act and communicate health information to make informed health decisions. To communicate at a level that helps patients to make use of health information, there is a need for the healthcare professional to first be able to identify and understand the patient's health literacy by considering age, gender, cultural background, education level, thoughts and behaviours associated with the topic under discussion, and perceived benefits and barriers towards the topic. Five strategies can then be applied for improving that patient's understanding and self management of his or her medical condition: (1) Assess patients' health literacy using open-ended questions; (2) Speak in plain language; (3) Limit the number of teaching points; (4) Use visual aids, and (5) Incorporate the 'teach-back' method to ensure patient understanding.

As the burden of anesthesiology teaching is heavy in undergraduate course, teachers can communicate with the students by nonverbal behaviors, such as eye contact, silent language, facial expression, paralanguage, which can make class atmosphere active, develop harmonious teacher-student relationship, and improve the quality of class teaching. Teachers of anesthesiology should take some measures, such as rehearsing lessons, summing up the experience of the lessons in time, accu-mulating the experience of nonverbal behaviors, and doing some exercise for the nonverbal behavior as much as possible, so as to set up an excellent atmosphere for teaching ,and meanwhile improve the quality of anesthesiology teaching.

Gray Platelet Syndrome ; Humans

Chelating Agents ; therapeutic use ; Drug Therapy, Combination ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal ; therapeutic use ; Hepatolenticular Degeneration ; drug therapy ; Humans ; Integrative Medicine ; methods ; Phytotherapy ; Succimer ; therapeutic use ; Treatment Outcome

Objective To quantitatively assess left ventricular systolic function in rabbits with dilated cardiomyopathy(DCM) by quantitative tissue velocity imaging (QTVI). Methods Thirty rabbits were divided into two groups: group A(adriamycin group) and group B(sodium chloride group). Group A( n = 20) were given adriamycin 2 mg/kg intravenously once a week for eight weeks (total dose, 16 mg/kg) to induce DCM model, group B were given with the same dose of sodium chloride injection solution. Two dimensional echocardiography and QTVI examination were performed in all rabbits before and three weeks after the administration,respectively. Peak systolic velocity(Vs), peak displacement(D) and other common parameters were analyzed. Results Common parameters assessed after administration in group B did not show significant changes. The QTVI curves of left ventricle myocardium were regular and the value of Vs and D decreased gradually from the basal segments to the apical segments after the administration. The diameters of atrium and ventricle of group A increased,while the ejection fraction and fractional shortening of left ventricle decreased significantly ( P <0. 05 or P < 0.01). The pattern of the curves still had the regularity. But Vs and D value decreased significantly ( P <0. 05 or P <0. 01). Pathology of myocardium samples of group A showed the cardiomyocyte changes like dilated cardiomyopathy, while samples of group B had no significant change. Conclusions QTVI can accurately evaluate regional systolic function of left ventricle in rabbits with dilated cardiomyopathy, therefore provides experimental foundation for clinical observation and treatment.